Spicy Red Bell Pepper Soup

"I love this recipe because it uses fresh, sweet red bell peppers, as opposed to roasted red peppers. It's full of other fresh vegetables and thyme, too, and it freezes exceptionally well. Rice is used as the thickening agent, rather than cream. If you don't like a lot of spice, reduce the amount of cayenne and red pepper flakes."

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Stir in the bell peppers, carrots, onions, celery, and garlic. Cook and stir the vegetables until soft, about 10 minutes. Stir in the chicken broth, rice, thyme, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper, and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until the rice and vegetables are tender, about 25 minutes. Remove from heat. and cool 30 minutes.

Blend the cooled soup until smooth using an hand-held immersion blender directly in the pot. Or use a blender, and blend the soup in batches until smooth.

Most Helpful Critical Review

Aug 19, 2010

I really enjoyed making this soup! Pretty alright as-is, nice flavors, but it's missing something (I don't know what! But I've been trying to figure it out all day.). Helpful additions were: lime and lemon juice, extra garlic powder, and dried basil - t hese additions made it a lot better for me. But it's still missing something I can't quite put my finger on. I think some shredded chicken, corn, or beans might help the flavor. Thanks for the recipe, it's nice to find one using fresh bell pepper.

This soup is incredible! Fresh, healthy, tasty ingredients...what else could you ask for?!? This reminds me of a soup I used to be able to get at a small sandwich cafe in DC...but they stopped offering it. I'm so glad I found this recipe! Also, I don't understand why anyone would complain about this soup being too "hot," when it clearly states that it is a spicy soup. Things that make you go, "Hmmm." YUM YUM YUM!!!

Very good! I was a little skeptical about using rice as a thickener, but it worked beautifully. This is also a great recipe for using up any extra veggies that are hanging around the fridge. I garnished this with shrimp and peppers, very pretty. Thanks!

Ok I did alter the final dish, but made the recipe as is, for a wonderful base. I turned this in to a seafood soup. At the end I added shrimp, scallops & crab. It just seemed natural! So good! The flavors were restaurant quality.

I chose this recipe over some other pepper soup recipes because it didn't use a cream base. For those who are watching their weight, this recipe delivers the flavor without the fat and calories. Very good and a great way to use that summer bounty of peppers. This is also a convenient recipe for not requiring roasting the peppers.

I followed this recipe because I had 2 pounds of small red and yellow peppers that I needed to use. This recipe came out great. I also used 4 carrots and skipped the celery. I also added about 12 ounces of mushrooms. I did not puree the soup. This was an excellent soup to serve on a hot summer afternoon.

Delicious! Great soup recipe, and fantastically easy! It blends up really nice and is nice and spicy. I will give it five stars, but I did have to alter it slightly to fit the ingredients I had. First, I halved the recipe, which still made lots of soup. I also used two (small) red peppers and two (small) yellow peppers. Next time I will make sure to make it with only red peppers, though the yellow peppers taste nice, the soup turns out mostly yellow. I also didn’t have garlic cloves, so I used garlic powder in their stead. I also substituted chilli powder for the cayenne pepper, and it doesn’t overpower the soup either. Thanks!

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

**Nutrient information is not available for all ingredients. Amount is based on available nutrient data.

(-)Information is not currently available for this nutrient. If you are following a medically restrictive diet, please consult your doctor or registered dietitian before preparing this recipe for personal consumption.